


Missed Connections

by Chaibelle



Category: Marvel Avengers Movies Universe
Genre: F/M, Gen, Reunions
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-09-24
Updated: 2012-09-24
Packaged: 2017-11-14 23:42:39
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,374
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/520738
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Chaibelle/pseuds/Chaibelle
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Bruce wonders where Betty was during the attack on New York. Meanwhile, Betty is looking for a doctor in Calcutta...</p>
            </blockquote>





	Missed Connections

Tony Stark had promised him that his computer system was capable of hacking into any database there was, provided enough time, and untraceable. As far as Bruce could tell that wasn’t a boast. He did question the need for the British-accented AI.

Standing in the empty lab, his fingers hovered over the keyboard. He glanced at the ceiling, and spoke to the program he knew monitored him. “Jarvis, do you report everything I do to Tony?”

“Only if he requests it,” JARVIS answered. Bruce frowned. “And he has yet to request such data.” The program elaborated.

“Anyone else?” Bruce asked after a moment.

“No, only Tony Stark has access to that level of data.”

“Huh.” Bruce stared at the computer screen for a moment longer, then pulled up the search window. Slowly, deliberately, he typed in Dr. Elizabeth Ross, and hit enter.

The picture that came up was the one used on her id card, where she was smiling big at the camera. He tore his eyes away from the picture to scan over the data the search as come up with. Most of it was the standard biographical information - age, eye color, hair color, weight. The stuff every government agency collects. There was a link to her medical records, and a thumbnail image of her finger prints. A box at the bottom of the screen caught his eye - last known location.

He squeezed his eyes shutting, taking deep breaths to calm his racing heart. He prayed to see Willowdale listed. Anywhere really, except New York. His control almost slipped at that thought. Tony had been so nice to him, in his own sideways unfathomable-genius way. It wouldn’t be good to repay that kindness by destroying a lab.

“Jarvis?” He said, keeping his eyes closed.

“Yes, Dr. Banner?” The AI responded.

“If I... lose control, would you please inform Tony immediately, and take whatever steps you can to limit the damage?”

“Of course. Several precautions have been put in place for just such an event.” With his eyes closed it sounded like an actual person standing next to him. He wondered what the precautions were - when Tony had put them in, and why. “May I inquire - are you in danger of losing control at this moment?”

“I hope not,” Bruce said. He couldn’t be sure what he’d feel, not until he was feeling it. Then it would be too late. He inhaled, and opened his eyes.

Relief. Last Known location: Calcutta, India. The day before the attack on New York.

Bruce exhaled, all the tension draining from him. She was safe, as safe was one could be in Calcutta, which was worlds safer than New York City was at the moment. He smiled, feeling weak, and sent up thanks to a deity he didn’t entirely believe in. He wouldn’t dwell on why.

“Doctor, if I may interrupt - Tony Stark has requested that you join him in the garage.”

Bruce gave the ceiling a suspicious glance. “Did he say why?”

“No, just that he wished for you to accompany him.”

The elevator just outside the lab went directly to the garage, which didn’t surprise Bruce in the least. He stepped off the elevator into a room that seemed more showroom then garage. Tony Stark himself stood by a sleek red sports car, adjusting the sleeves of his impeccable cream suit. He flashed Bruce a wolfish grin.

“Get in loser, we’re going to go pick up girls.”

\--

Calcutta was an amazing city. Betty could have spent months enjoying its art and culture, but instead she’d spent the last few days searching its slums for a ghost. Skinny American doctors who turned into hulking green monsters were harder to track down then one would think, but then she shouldn’t have been surprised. Bruce knew how to hide.

She had always kept her ear to the ground, just in case something happened. It had been luck that she’d seen his face in a crowd in a photograph taken by a coworker on a recent trip. It had been a gamble, but what else was she going to spend her vacation time on? And this had been the best lead to come her way in years. She felt she had to take the chance, to see him again. It had been too long, and despite reassurances from everyone she knew her feelings hadn’t faded.

It had taken several days to track him to a little hole in the wall he’d made into a hospital. The people there confirmed that it was indeed him, but that he’d disappeared several days before, following a little girl into the night.

Betty got lucky. It only took her a day to find the little girl on the outskirts of the slums. A little girl who was willing to talk, for the right price.

“A woman came,” the girl said as Betty doled out folded bills. Her English was broken, but understandable. “She had a funny voice, and red...” The girl made gestures around her head.

“Hair?” Betty offered. The little girl nodded.

“She had me bring the doctor to a house. Big tanks came after I left, and he left with them.”

Betty frowned. What could Bruce have possibly gotten involved with now? Who had him? She thanked the girl and sent her on her way, after the girl directed her to an old man who confirmed the story. The woman had been Russian, and he didn’t recognize the markings on the tanks.

Back at her hotel Betty started packing. If some mysterious Russian organization had him she wouldn’t be finding him any time soon. It would be too dangerous to try. She sighed. She’s gotten so close this time, she could feel it. This trail had gone cold, so all she could do was go back home and put her ear to the ground again. Who knew, maybe the Russians could help. It wasn’t like they were capable of holding him.

\--

Bruce leaned against the side of the sports car, which was parked on the edges of the tarmac of a private runway, and smiled at Tony’s back. He should have guessed that ‘go pick up girls’ meant ‘go pick up Pepper at the airport.’ He had yet to meet the woman, but from the way Tony talked about her it seemed a miracle that he could function at all without her.

The sleek jet landed with a roar loader than even the Other Guy. Tony vibrated with barely contained energy while the jet taxied to a stop and a set of metal steps were wheeled up to the door. First came the black suited bodyguards, then a red haired woman emerged like a rock star, pausing at the door to look for Tony. When she saw him her face lit up like a spotlight. Bruce couldn’t help but thing about how Betty used to light up like that. Would she still?

Pepper glided down the steps with the practiced ease of someone used to walking on metal grating in heels. Tony intercepted her at the bottom of the steps, sweeping her up for a quick kiss before her feet had even hit the ground. Bruce couldn’t help but smile at them. Pepper leaned in and said something to Tony that was lost in the distance between them, and Tony looked up the set of stairs. Bruce followed his gaze upwards, and he straightened up.

Betty Ross was paused in mid step at the top of the stairs, her hand gripping the railing and her eyes locked on him. Her expression transforming from disbelief to happiness. Bruce felt his mouth go dry, a thousand words and emotions bringing a strangle grip down on his throat. His heart beat picked up, and for a moment everything was lost in a white wash of irrational panic. He closed his eyes, and all the hours of meditation practice came flooding in, calming his heart.

Going to go pick up _girls_. He could kill Tony.

\--

A red haired woman had been waiting for Betty at the airport. She was dressed in an expensive business suit and wearing a vaguely annoyed expression that disappeared when she spotted Betty, and was ghosted by a pair of bodyguards. For a moment Betty was terrified. Here was the Russian woman, come to silence her because she got too close.

But then the woman spoke, and she was utterly American. “Dr. Ross? My name is Pepper Potts.”

After that Betty had been ushered on to a private jet, instead of the commercial one she’d flown in on, and Pepper gave her an outline of events - that her boss, without consulting her, had detoured the jet, to the other side of the world, just so she could pick up a Dr. Elizabeth Ross. Also that her boss was none other than Tony Stark.

“He wouldn’t tell me why, beyond it’s a surprise, but...” Betty watched as Pepper flipped through pages on her tablet. She could see enough of the display to know that it was a file about her. “If I had to guess, I’d say it has something to do with your association with a... Dr. Banner?”

“Bruce?” His name slipped from Betty’s lips. Pepper nodded thoughtfully without looking up. “What does Tony Stark want with Bruce?” A dozen possibilities, most of them bad, raced through her mind.

Pepper looked up and started to say something, then thought better of it. “Do you know...?”

“About what?” Betty asked, feeling confused as Pepper exchanged looks with her bodyguards. Pepper turns her tablet away from view and enters something. Then she turns it around and holds it out for Betty to take. Betty catches a glimpse of a city on fire, and the words New York City splashed across the top of the page. She took the tablet, feeling numb as she starts to read.

It’s a new article about an extraterrestrial attack on New York. The text gave only the briefest coverage of event, letting the pictures speak for what happened. The city on fire, aliens in the street, giant monsters in the air...

And the heroes. Betty recognized Iron Man, Tony Stark himself, but there were others as well - a red caped man who wielded a hammer and lightning, like some Norse god; a man who appeared to be, an impossible as it seemed, Captain America; another man in black, wearing a stony expression and wielding a bow. A woman in black with a halo of vibrant red hair.

Then, towards the end, a stunning series of shots of a green giant, the news article dubbed him ‘The Hulk’, single handedly taking out one of the giant whale-like flying monsters. Betty unknowingly gasped Bruce’s name.

At the end of the article was a series of videos. Betty played them, trying to grasp what had happened. The footage was shaky and chaotic, taken by camera phones and webcams. During the rest of the flight Betty watched the battle, which took place over barely two hours, over and over again from different angles, until she started to get a grasp on the sequence events. Every glimpse she got of Bruce squeezed her heart with fear.

By the time the seatbelt lights came on for the decent she was shaking with the knowledge of how, once again, New York had been the center of a worldwide change. And that _her_ Bruce Banner had been in the middle of it. That he was being hailed a _hero_.

“I think Tony offered him a job,” is all Pepper said, sounding a bit exasperated.

\--

When Bruce opened his eyes again she’d made it to the ground and was hurrying towards him. He only managed two steps towards her before they met and she threw her arms around him. The sight of her was so hazy that he could barely tell that she was crying too.

“Bruce,” she said, hitting his chest. The blow wasn’t hard, but it wasn’t light either. She sniffled and stepped back, sweeping him with a sharp look while she composed herself. “I thought you didn’t want anything to do with weapons tech anymore, what are you doing having Tony freaking Stark rebooking my flight?”

“Hey, I’m not in the weapons business anymore,” Tony said as he walked up with an arm around Pepper. “Stark Industries is all about Defense and Clean Energy now. Did you not debrief her Pepper? I told you to debrief her...”

Pepper shut him up with a jab to the ribs. She smiled at Betty, then Bruce. “Knowing what’s waiting for you is not the same as seeing it,” she said, “it’s good to finally meet you, Dr. Banner.”

“Same here, Ms. Potts,” Bruce offered, holding out his hand for the brief required handshake.

“Call me Pepper,” she said. There he was, smiling again. He had a feeling he was going to like her.

“Come on big guy, ladies,” Tony said, making a sweeping gesture towards his car. “I’m hungry, and I’m sure you girls are sick of airline food.”

Settling into the back of the sports car next to Betty feels surreal to Bruce, like some dream that might crumble at any moment. He wonders if he is dreaming, the last few weeks had not been restful to say the least, but then she reaches out and weaves her fingers through his. Her touch grounds him, like it always has. He smiles at her. He missed this, he missed their connection.

“I don’t think I can let you go again,” she said, and he could barely hear her words over the rush of air that tossed her hair about her face. Tony really had only one speed setting.

“Me either,” he replied. He was tired of running, of hiding. He did good work out there, but he could do good work here too. He was willing to crash in one of Tony’s endless guest rooms for as long as Tony was willing to put up with him occasionally breaking the building.

They had so many things to talk about, so many little things to deal with. But it could all wait. He had the woman he loved at his side, and that was all that mattered right then.

**Author's Note:**

> This started as something much smaller, but then it got away from me as I tried to fit everything in. I drew the line at making it a multi-chapter fic, I don't have the time to do that right now. So this is just an experiment in writing these characters.


End file.
